Oakdale cemetery

The establishment of Oakdale Cemetery, 1892-1896.

Wilson County Public Library’s local history room holds volumes of transcribed minutes of meetings of Wilson’s late nineteenth-century board of town commissioners. The fits and starts of the town’s initial efforts to establish a public cemetery for African-Americans can be found in these pages.

On 1 August 1892, “Chas. Battle and Danl. Vick were appointed a committee to see where and at what price they could buy a suitable piece of land for a Colored Cemetery and report at the next meeting of the Board.”

On 5 September 1892, “Chas. Battle and Danl. Vick, the committee on the Colored Cemetery made their report, recommending two places. It was moved and carried that a committee of three be appointed to examine the said places and recommend a purchase. D. Herring, W.T. Sanders and Dr. A. Anderson were appointed as said committee.”

Four months later, on 2 January 1893, “The Committee on the Colored Cemetery recommended the purchase of the Peacock land, to the extent of about six acres. It was moved and unanimously carried that the Committee be authorized to make the purchase.” This land was not purchased, and another year passed.

On 23 February 1894, “It was moved and carried that Dr. Anderson and E.N. Mercer be appointed a committee on the Colored Cemetery, with instructions to have the same completed as early as possible.”

Four months later, on 26 July 1894, yet another committee: “It was moved and carried that the Mayor appoint a Committee to look into the matter of securing a Cemetery for the Colored Citizens of the Town.”

A year later, on 28 June 1895: “The matter of a Colored Cemetery was discussed and on motion, the Mayor, Geo. Hackney, and P.B. Deans were appointed a  committee to cooperate with a Committee on the part of the Colored people, to look after the purchase of a site for said Cemetery, with power to act.”

On 1 August 1895, “The Committee on the Colored Cemetery reported progress and was continued.”

Again, on 29 August 1895, “The Committee on the Colored Cemetery reported progress and it was continued.”

Finally, on 16 September 1895, “The Committee on the Colored Cemetery reported the purchase of a plot of land at a cost of $597.50. The action of the Committee was ratified and it was instructed to make all necessary arrangement for closing of the matter.” [G.W. and Easter Suggs sold John F. Bruton, mayor of the Town of Wilson, an irregularly shaped parcel of land adjoining the lands of Charles Battle, G.W. Suggs, and D.C. Suggs and others and measuring an astonishing 12.2 acres, as well as a strip of land to be “dedicated to the public use as an avenue, street, or road …” Deed book 39, page 132, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office. This is more than one-and-a-half times the size of Vick Cemetery. What happened to it?]

On 26 September 1895, “The matter of a fence around the Colored Cemetery was taken up and an offer for building a wire fence around the same was made by R.J. Taylor as follows: [blank] On motion, the offer was accepted. On motion, the attorney who prepared the deed for G.W. Suggs; the preparing of the deed being a part of the consideration, was allowed.”

On 29 November 1895, “On motion the Colored Cemetery was named Oakdale Cemetery.”

On 26 December 1895, “G.W. Suggs and others came before the Board to protest against an appointment of Keeper of Oakdale Cemetery, made at a previous meeting. On motion, the matter of opening the Street near Oakdale Cemetery was referred to the Street Commissioner and the Chief of Police.” [This, perhaps, was what we know as Cemetery Street.]

On 31 January 1896, “The Committee on the street at Oakdale Cemetery was continued.”

On 26 June 1897,  the Town Ordinance was updated, effective 1 July 1897: “Ordinance VIII. CEMETERIES. Section 1 – That any person making an interment in the Town, other than in Maplewood or Oakdale Cemetery should be subject to a fine of Ten Dollars. Section 2 – That any person injuring or defacing the enclosures around Maplewood or Oakdale Cemetery or the tomb-stones or plucking the flowers or shrubbery therein or in any church yard, should be subject to a find of Five Dollars. Section 3 – That any person riding or driving a horse or vehicle within the cemeteries faster than a walk, should be subject to a fine of Two Dollars. Section 4 – That the use of the Avenues in the Cemeteries as a public thoroughfare is hereby prohibited under the penalty of Two Dollars for each offense. …”

On 30 November 1896, “W.T.H. Woodard was relected [sic] Keeper of Oakdale Cemetery without pay, he having the use of all vacant land in the same.” [Woodard was a Missionary Baptist minister. The keeper of Maplewood, by the way, was paid $20-25 per month.]

This detail from the 1904 topographical map of Wilson Quadrant shows the general area of Oakland Cemetery.

Less than 15 years later, the handwriting was on the wall for Oakland Cemetery:

Wilson Daily Times, 12 December 1911.

A little over a year later, the Town bought 7.84 acres from Samuel H. Vick for a new black cemetery — the one we now know as Vick.

B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 13: Oakdale Cemetery.

In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.

We been here.

OAKDALE CEMETERY

Also known as Oakland or Oaklawn. City-owned African-American cemetery established c. 1895. Last burial in early 1920s. Nearby Cemetery Street named for site. In 1940, city disinterred graves and moved to newly opened Rest Haven Cemetery.

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I took this photo on New Street at the opening of an alley leading to an open field at the rear of former Elvie Street School. No evidence of Oakdale Cemetery remains on the site. The cemetery’s exact boundaries have not been determined, but evidence is strong that this area was within its territory. Wilson Cemetery Commission has no maps of Oakdale Cemetery or records of its burials. Nor are there records pertaining to the disinterment of bodies from Oakdale and reburial in Rest Haven. Read more about this forgotten burial ground here and here and here and here and here.

Berry Williams, cemetery keeper.

The 1908 Wilson city directory lists Berry Williams as the keeper of Oaklawn Cemetery. Oaklawn, also known Oakland and Oakdale, preceded Vick Cemetery as Wilson’s Black public burial ground. It lent its name to Cemetery Street.

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On 13 April 1890, Berry Williams, 33, of Wilson township, son of Gilly Batchelor, married Penina Campbell, 19, of Wilson township, daughter of Sidney and Maggie Campbell, at Walter Ward‘s in Wilson township. Free Will Baptist minister Crocket Best performed the ceremony in the presence of Anthney Vick, Ransom Ruffin, and Hardy Ellis.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: carpenter Berry Williams, 49, and wife Penina, 29.

In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Berry (c) keeper Oaklawn Cemetery h 146 Suggs

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farm laborer Berry Williams, 51, and wife Penny, 39.

In the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Berry (c) carpenter h 146 Suggs [146 Suggs Street, later numbered 701, was at the corner of Suggs and Moore Streets, just north of the cemetery.]

In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Berry (c) farmer h 146 Suggs

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Suggs Street, Berry Williams, 65, and wife Penina, 42, tobacco factory worker.

In the 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Berry (c) laborer h 147 Suggs

In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Berry (c) farmer h 701 Suggs

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Berry (c; Penina) farmer h 701 Suggs

Berry Williams died 19 November 1929 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 74 years old; was born in Nash County, N.C., to Gillie Batcher; was married to Pennie Williams; lived at 701 Suggs Street; worked as a common laborer; and was buried in Wilson [most likely, in Rountree Cemetery, but possibly Oakdale.]

A committee to look for a burial ground.

Late local historian Hugh B. Johnston Jr.’s file contained this note, apparently copied from volumes of city commissioners or boards of aldermen meetings that cannot now be located:

“Dec. 17, 1888 Oakview Cemetery. Gray Farmer, [illegible] Robinson, and Washington Sugg were appt. a Committee to look for a burial ground for the colored people.”

This is the earliest reference to a public African-American cemetery in Wilson and appears to presage the establishment of Oakdale (also called Oaklawn, Oakland, Oakwood, and Oakview) Cemetery in the area of present-day Cemetery Street south to the former Elvie Street School. Sugg (or Suggs) owned extensive property in the area, and the deed for his first land purchase refers to a preexisting “graveyard lot” near his property. This lot may have been developed into a city cemetery.

However, an 1895 Wilson Daily Times article mentions that county commissioners had begun to search for a “suitable burying ground for the colored people.” What had happened (or not happened) in the previous seven years?

Oakdale Cemetery, which was active until about 1920, was the predecessor of Vick Cemetery.

Thanks to J. Robert Boykin for bringing this to my attention.

Ordinance IX. Cemeteries.

On 28 June 1901, Wilson’s Board of Commissioners enacted town ordinances, including IX, which governed cemeteries. Twelve years later, the city abandoned African-American Oakdale Cemetery in favor of Vick Cemetery, which in turn it proceeded to neglect.

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Section 1 — That any person making an interment in the Town other than in Maplewood or Oakdale Cemeteries should be subject to a fine of Ten Dollars.

Section 2 — That any one injuring or defacing the inclosures around Maplewood or Oakdale Cemeteries, or tombstones, or plucking the flowers shrubbery therein or in any Church yard, should be subject to a fine of Five Dollars.

Section 3 — That any person riding or driving a horse or vehicle within the Cemeteries faster than a walk should be subject to a fine of Five Dollars.

Section 4 — That the use of the avenues in the Cemeteries as public thoroughfares is hereby prohibited, under a penalty of Two Dollars for each offense.

Section 5 — That no dead body should be exhumed in the Cemeteries except by permission of the Mayor, under a penalty of Ten Dollars.

Section 6 — That it should be the duty of the Keeper of Cemeteries to keep all lots clean, keep all graves filled when caved and in good condition.

Section 7 — That the Keeper of Maplewood Cemetery should be and is hereby invested with full Police power and is denominated Cemetery Policeman.

Section 8 — That no Cemetery lots should be sold except for cash.

Fire at the cemetery.

Wilson Daily Times, 1 September 1932.

In this odd series of events, the “negro cemetery” appears to be the old Oakdale cemetery, located west of Stantonsburg Street (now Pender) and by 1932 abandoned.

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  • Frank Austin — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 318 South Lodge Street, Alas Austin, 65; son George Austin, 45; and grandchildren Pattie B., 20, Earnest, 19, Rose M., 17, Lorrine, 13, Katie B., 12, Virginia, 11, and Leroy Barnes, 10, and Frank Austin, 23. [The Barnes children were surely the children of India Alston Barnes, who was shot to death by their father Tip Barnes in 1921.]

Lane Street Project: historic cemetery registration.

Last week, I registered Rountree, Odd Fellows, Vick, and Oakdale Cemeteries as historic cemeteries with North Carolina’s Office of State Archaeology, Division of Archives and History. Registration does not offer protection per se, but does guarantee their placement on state maps of sites of archaeological interest.

As an example, the form for Vick Cemetery:

The map showing state archaelogical sites is not yet available on-line. 

Another look at the location of Oakdale, the “colored cemetery.”

As noted here, I have long been intrigued by the disappearance (in space and memory) of Wilson’s first African-American cemetery, sometimes called Oaklawn or Oakland or Oakdale. The precise location of the first city-owned black cemetery is a mystery, though most people believe (and as I conjectured here) it was above Cemetery Street where Whitfield Homes are now situated.

No official records related to the cemetery survive, and no plat map delineates its complete boundaries. However, I’ve found one reference to the “colored cemetery” on a 1923 plat map of “The D.C. Sugg Property Located on Stantonsburg Road and Lincoln Avenue.”  Using a 1937 aerial photograph of the area (the graves in the cemetery were disinterred in the early 1940s), plus the plat, I’ve come up with a revised location estimate.

Here’s the plat map, with modern street names noted and the area marked “Colored Cemetery” emphasized:

1-215 copy

Plat Book 1, page 215 (annotated), Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

Wilson disinterred the (known) graves at Oakdale in 1941. Accordingly, I searched the 1937 aerial photograph of this area, below. The street at left is Railroad Street. Manchester Street is at far right, and parallel to it was then Stantonsburg Street. (North of Cemetery, it is now Pender Street. The lower section is now Black Creek Road.)The red-dashed lines mark current streets, including Pender, New, Nora, and Blount. The blue-dashed line is Nora St. as it appears on the 1923 plat map above. The green marks the borders of the colored cemetery above. (I have added a northern border though none is shown on the plat map.)

If my mark-up is correct, the cemetery (or, at least, its southern extension) was south of Cemetery Street near the site now occupied by Daniels Learning Center (the former Elvie Street School.)

I ran the mark-up by Will Corbett, GIS Coordinator, Wilson County Technology Services Department, for an opinion on my conjecture. He agreed and returned this graphic:

Bingo. The blue-shaded area is the “colored cemetery” overlaid on a current map of the neighborhood. This image reveals that the cemetery covered what is now a row of houses fronting on New Street, as well nearly the entirety of the lawn and semi-circular driveway in front of Daniels/Elvie school.

Was this cemetery marked on Sanborn fire insurance maps? It is not on the 1922 map, the last one for which I have access.

The maps corresponding to the sections marked 25 and 29 show houses along Railroad, Suggs and Stantonsburg Streets, and a few along the north side of East Contentnea (now Cemetery) Street. However, south of East Contentnea, the space is blank but for subsection numbers 225 and 256, and no corresponding maps were made. Though it is not marked, Oakdale cemetery was located in this space.

With the information above, I revisited a plat map the city filed in 1942. I initially had difficulty interpreting “The Town of Wilson Property on Cemetery Street,” but I now see it is oriented south to north. Turn it upside down, and the outline of the old colored cemetery clearly emerges. As I suspected, the city had owned the section between present-day New and Cemetery Streets as well as the inverted L below New, and it is likely that there were also burials in this space.

Plat book 3, page 150, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

Trustee’s sale of Suggs’ land.

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Wilson Daily Times, 12 October 1928.

Trustee J.S. Duncan posted a notice of the sale of three lots on which Daniel C. Suggs and wife Mary A. Suggs defaulted payment.

The first lot was one and a half acres between Railroad Street and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, adjacent to Contentnea Fertilizer Factory.

The second lot was six acres north of Contentnea [Cemetery] Street adjoining Calvin Blount, John Ratley, Samuel H. Vick, and “the colored cemetery.”

The third lot was at the intersection of Railroad and Suggs Streets.

The town’s property on Cemetery Street?

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NOTICE: I am speculating here.

This is a plat map, labeled “The Town of Wilson Property on Cemetery Street,” showing the subdivision of a parcel of land into 79 lots and several blocks of unnamed streets. I do not have access to the deed recording the city’s purchase of this tract. Moreover, the exact location of this tract today is difficult to determine. However, the date of map — October 1942, eleven months after the exhumation of graves from Oakdale cemetery — suggests to me that this is the cemetery land that the city “condemned … to build several roads through it.”